No parking bay, Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 to skip Mumbai

On May 29, Emirates announced it would fly Airbus A380 on its late night Dubai-Mumbai flight in place of a Boeing 777.

At present, Lufthansa flies a Boeing 747-400 on a Frankfurt-Mumbai route and had sought to replace it with a 747-8 type plane.

A Mumbai International Airport Ltd spokesperson confirmed that the airport has only one in-contact bay for A380 or 747-8 type plane and it can handle only plane of that type at a time.

“We are creating more bays, which will address the issue in a period of 15 months from now," the spokesperson said in an email response. The Delhi airport has nine parking bays, which can handle the super jumbo planes.

No parking bay, Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 to skip Mumbai

“Aircraft deployment and rescheduling is a very normal practice in aviation industry and is based on many factors.

"Our plans to deploy the A380 to Mumbai have been made in view of the growing demand in the Indian market,” Lufthansa said in a statement.

“India is an important market.

"We always aim to offer our customers in India our top products like the new business class with fully flat bed seats and the new premium economy class.

"We change aircraft size according to demand in the markets and we are pleased to say that in view of the growing demand we plan to introduce the A380 in Mumbai instead of B747-8, both being our flagship aircraft.

"We have applied for permission and are hopeful for getting approvals soon,’’ Lufthansa added.